Songfacts®:

• In this motivational song, Audra Day sings about rising up every day to keep working past our obstacles. Our challenges sometimes seem insurmountable, but if we keep fighting, day after day, we'll overcome them eventually.
  
  Day told Time about writing the song: "My music and my personal life were both stagnating at the time, and a friend of mine had been diagnosed with cancer. "Rise Up" started as a sort of prayer - I thought about what I needed to hear to be able to get back on my feet. Most of the song came streaming out in the first freestyle recording. Honestly, there are lines in there I'd normally find cliché. But sometimes a good cliché is exactly what you need in a moment of hopelessness."
• Day wrote this song with Jennifer Decilveo, who also produced the track. Decilveo has also written and produced for Anne-Marie, Bat for Lashes, and Hinds.
• The video was directed by M. Night Shyamalan of The Sixth Sense fame. In it, we see a young couple in bed, and later learn that the guy is paralyzed. She has to care for him every day, but he manages to take her on a date to a nice restaurant. The actress is Bisserat Tseggai; the guy is played by Gregory Mozgala, who has Cerebral Palsy.
• In 2017, "Rise Up" caught on with the Black Lives Matter matter movement, to which Day offered her full-throated support.
• A cover by the TikTok star Christian Shelton was used in a 2021 Super Bowl commercial for Indeed titled "The Rising."
• In May 2016, Day entered into an agreement with McDonald's and Coca-Cola. The partnership saw her image and lyrics to "Rise Up" appear on 40 million Coca-Cola cups at select McDonald's throughout the US. Purchasers of the exclusively designed cups could enter a sweepstakes that allowed them to see Day perform at the Essence Music Festival the following month.